Confessional drop boxes, self-reflective television sets, cold irony from Mexico, dissected impressions of city lights, a live maple rising from a concrete pedestal, an agrinautical flight of earthbound fancy, monumental metal playthings and do-it-yourself building materials will be featured in the next SculptEVV exhibition.

Braysmith, a University of Southern Indiana art history professor, is back as the project director for the program, which brought a dozen public, outdoor sculptures to vacant lots in Evansville's Arts District last spring in the inaugural show.

All but one, which was brought down by vandals, still stand on sites along Parrett Street and Adams and Jefferson avenues. All will depart in April to make room for this year's 10 finalists, which will go up in time for public unveiling festivities June 15.

Those 10 will remain up through April 20, 2014, and one — the top purchase award — will become part of Evansville's permanent collection.

One of this year's finalists, "1 Maple," comes from Saul Melman, the Brooklyn, N.Y., artist whose entry in last year's SculptEVV, "Best of Possible Worlds," won the competition's top purchase award before vandals smashed it. Event organizers hope to replace the piece for the city's permanent public art collection.

Like Melman's "Best of Possible Worlds," a vacuum-molded acrylic casting of a free-standing residential entry door, this year's entry remembers former features of razed Arts District lots once home to landscaped residences. With "1 Maple," Melman will plant a mature Maple, set to look as if it's growing from a concrete sculpture pad.

"It's an actual, living maple," said Braysmith. By appearing to place it on an art pedestal, "it becomes something we notice and respect," she said. "It becomes an artwork in and of itself."

This year's juror, senior curator and chair of the Indianapolis Museum of Art's contemporary art division, is widely recognized figure who has served as commissioner of the American pavilion in the 54th La Biennale di Venezia, an international exhibition in Italy.

"I think she's adventurous," Braysmith said.

Freiman chose 10 finalists for this year's exhibition and competition from 118 entries from across the country. Last year's juror, Marilu Knode, executive director of the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis, Mo., picked a dozen finalists from 75 entries.

Under the $120,000, two-year program, a cultural and economic development program created in conjunction with Evansville's bicentennial celebrations, each finalist will receive a $1,200 installation stipend to bring and erect a piece of public sculpture in the week before this year's installation opens, on June 15.

That's when they'll find out who has won prizes totaling more than $36,000, with a top purchase award of $20,000.

This year's finalists represent an array of media, ideas and geography. Four artists have Hoosier ties. The rest come from Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, Arizona, Texas and New York. Here are thumbnail descriptions of the finalists' work, drawn from images and artists' statements:

'Truth/Lies'

"Truth/Lies," by Jamie Pawlus of Indianapolis, resembles a pair of large, postal drop boxes placed beside one another. The orange box, labeled "Truths," and the blue box, labeled "Lies," each have a slot, presumably for passers-by to slip confessions, accusations and declarations through, and a large, locked door, presumably to retrieve any contents. "Each of my projects is intended to give a greater understanding of the human condition," Pawlus wrote in her artist's statement.

'Keep it Together'

Benjamin Pierce of Cape Girardeau, Mo., pays homage to family tradition and traditional building materials with "Keep it Together," a pair of geometric brick structures placed beside one another. "I think bricks are overlooked and underrated for their beauty and strength," he wrote. The artist has been a hod carrier for his father, who is a third-generation mason, he noted. "I would be remiss if I didn't pay homage to my family lineage."

'Elements'

"Elements," a grouping of wavy, vertical steel I-beams by Scott Westphal of Indianapolis, represents "a hybrid of abstraction, minimalism and figuration," he wrote. He seeks a balance "between the rigid and the flowing, the hard and the soft, the industrial and the natural."

'Tractor Fin'

"Tractor Fin," by Kurt Dyrhaug of Beaumont, Texas, a monumental wooden configuration that look like it could be the rudder and elevator section of a giant's toy airplane, reflects the artist's exploration of "agricultural and nautical elements from my experiences living in Minnesota and Southeast Texas," he wrote. "This work evokes form and function from these devices, evoking new associations of meaning."

'NAFTA's Gift'

Shawn Skabelund of Flagstaff, Ariz., strikes a piercingly resonant note for Evansville, but makes a broader statement as well, with "NAFTA's Gift." The installation features a crated, palleted 2009 freezer-top Whirlpool refrigerator like those once made in Evansville, now built in Mexico. The crate will come with a shipping label addressed to the closed Evansville plant from a facility in Monterrey, Mexico. A copy of the a letter announcing the Evansville factory's closing will appear on the crating as well.

'Chiaroscuro'

With "Chiaroscuro," Virginia Kistler of Gahanna, Ohio, will arrange spaced, contoured metal slices in a series to represent her impressions of city lights flaring into the darkness. In the past, Kistler has suspended the slices from gallery ceilings to capture a sense of time and space. For the Evansville project, she will anchor them on metal rods into a concrete base. "My work draws parallels between the growth of urban spaces and the consequences of this growth on the human psyche," she wrote.

'Floor Models'

Max Stolkin, an Indianapolis native who has worked as an artist in Washington, California and Germany, plans to use what appear to be painted, corrugated roofing panels propped up, perhaps, like solar panels, art on an easel or merchandise in a building supply store. The idea behind the piece, titled "Floor Models," is to arrange standard do-it-yourself renovation materials "as units and integers that fail to account for functionality, and instead subvert those functions toward aesthetic, ideological and tactile concerns," states Stolkin.

'What's on T.V.'

Melissa Johnson, a Bloomington, Ind., artist from Evansville, will reflect on her hometown memories with "What's on T.V.," which will incorporate television sets into an outdoor setting. "I draw from my adolescence spent watching television channels more often than interacting with my reality," she states. Her art will invite viewers to use the shiny surfaces of unplugged television screens for self-reflection.

'The Long Toss'

With "The Long Toss," John Anderson-Bricker of Dubuque, Iowa, will turn rusted, industrial steel scraps into monumental objects of whimsy. By welding together pieces of pipes, beams and other functional steel materials, the artist transforms them into large-diameter globes that could be balls, tossed out by a giant.'1 Maple'

In "1 Maple," Melman addresses "reclamation, healing and transformation," he wrote. His arboreal art will evoke memories of maples that once stood at 24 Jefferson St., the site of his "Best of All Possible Worlds," but were razed, with the house that once occupied that space.

All of the proposals and details of the program are available online at sculptevv.org.